Cowboys should have stayed quiet about Vikings running up score

MINNEAPOLIS – Thoroughly embarrassed by the 34-3 whipping they absorbed here Sunday (or at least they should be), the Cowboys are scheduled to clean out their lockers and meet with the media this morning at Valley Ranch.

Coach Wade Phillips isn’t scheduled to hold a news conference today, although that could change. Owner Jerry Jones stopped short Sunday of saying Phillips would receive an extension, but that’s expected to get ironed out in the next 48 hours.

“I’ll be sitting down with Wade and then we can kind of address it squarely, that’s what I would like to do,” the Dallas Morning News quoted Jones as saying. “But I’m pleased with the job he’s done and this game does not have any bearing ultimately on the decision I’ll make.

“I certainly will evaluate this game, but this is a game that we know we’ve got to be better than we were today but I don’t have anywhere near the feeling that I had at the end of last year when we were in Philadelphia at season’s end. This is a totally different thing.

“We’ve got a foundation we can build on. We’ve got talent, we’ve got talent on the way with young players that we have the chance to keep with continuity and I’m going to do that.”

Phillips blew it opting to send out shaky Shaun Suisham to try a 48-yard field goal in the first quarter rather go for it on fourth-and-1, but that bad decision ultimately had no bearing on the outcome.

The Vikings were simply better in a lot of areas, including quarterback, and would have won even if Suisham made the kick. There was no stopping their front seven, which toyed with the Cowboys offensive line.

Several times the Cowboys tried max protection only to have Ray Edwards or Jared Allen come breaking free to terrorize Tony Romo.

One more thought before I catch my plane back to Dallas: The Cowboys should have kept quiet about the Vikings running up the score. As Minnesota NT Pat Williams said, it’s the playoffs. Minnesota is facing a tough challenge agains the Saints in the Superdome Sunday and needed all the momentum it could get. The Cowboys sounded like a bunch of cry babies. I will say this, though, at least Keith Brooking addressed the issue squarely, calling the Vikings last touchdown “classless and disrespectful.” Phillips, meanwhile, just took a veiled shot at Brad Childress and then backed away from it later when asked to clarify.